National Foundation Provides Five $10,000 Scholarships to Ease Nursing Shortage

October 8, 2008 — Funding from a national foundation will allow the University of Wyoming to award five scholarships of $10,000 each to help ease an urgent national shortage of nurses and nurse faculty.

UW's Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing (FWWSN) is one of 58 schools of nursing in 31 states to receive scholarship funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). This scholarship program will allow the FWWSN's Bachelors Reach for Accelerated Nursing Degree (BRAND) Program to award the five scholarships to students enrolled in the fast-track program for students with previous non-nursing baccalaureate degrees.

"BRAND provides exciting opportunities for people interested in career change, and the graduates of the program are already providing much-needed nursing care in the state of Wyoming," says Mary Burman, UW FWWSN dean. "The program is fast paced and intense with only 15 months of study, making it difficult for students to work during the program. Consequently, these scholarships will be invaluable in helping students successfully complete the program."

By strategically focusing on students in accelerated baccalaureate and master's programs, Burman says the RWJF and the AACN are "efficiently preparing a new cadre of well-educated nurses and strengthening the pipeline of potential nurse faculty."

For more information about this and other scholarship opportunities in nursing at UW, contact Dawn Deiss, (307) 766-6565, e-mail ddeiss@uwyo.edu.

PhotoStudents in the University of Wyoming's BRAND Program take a break at the nursing station while serving a clinical experience last summer at Laramie's Ivinson Memorial Hospital. From left are Dave O'Keefe, San Diego, Calif; Jackie Murphy, Laramie; Beth Ueland, Billings, Mont; and Daryl Braga, Denver. (Claire Hitchcock Photo)